Pushups were a group of West Coast USA punks who evolved from the group Aurora Pushups into razor-sharp Power Pop gold, jaggy as all hell with some synth riffage in the mix. Playing around the states in ’79/’80 they waxed a single EP in this form but the bulk of their irresistible breakneck, power pop smashes languished in the under-the-bed tapes of the group until Hozac did some excavation work with the help of archivist Ricky Maymi. The sound on this compilation ranges from the group’s anglophile weirdness, heavy Devo-influenced synth punk and some really, really top tier hook-heavy hitters. Pushups Is Pop features 8 tracks by the Pushups and the two tracks waxed by their predecessor group.

Where to start with the highlights? So Let Down stops and starts with jaggedness before a classic New Wavey Power Pop ascending vocal and Yellow Pills-ready harmony-drenched chorus that reminds us of Squeeze and even a weird mix of late 60s Kinks if they were on Chiswick? Their BIGGEST song is probably Love That Girl, with its Who riffage that blows up into a big teen heartbreaker chorus that should have ruled the world, or would have if it were by Rick Springfield. The Aurora Pushups tracks are primo outsider weirdness… if you’ve ever wondered what a ultra catchy pop song about terrorism might sound like then you could do no better than the Victims Of Terrorism track, which with a chorus like “One day we might be… victims of terrorism” is chutzpah at its finest.